Russia escapes threatened trip to Cuba

The visit to the port of Havana of the Russian Northern Fleet fleet, which includes a modern frigate, a nuclear submarine and two auxiliary ships, achieved the desired objective and caused annoyance among Russia’s “rivals”, as reported today by the commander of the Russian Navy, Alexander Moiseyev.

“The proximity of a fleet of Russian ships to the borders of our current opponent made someone nervous. For us this is a very important thing, we were confident about the actions of our forces. And above all, we have the support of Cuba, which is close to us. The visit had an impact,” he said, as quoted by Interfax.

Moiseyev stressed that “Russian ships will continue to carry out missions in areas important to us, as they did before.”

The Russian fleet arrived in the port of Havana on an “unofficial” visit on June 12 and stayed there for five days. During that time, the ships received visits from representatives of the Cuban government, including the country’s president, Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Prior to their arrival in Cuba, U.S. officials attempted to downplay the incident, saying “Russia’s deployments are part of routine naval activity and are of no concern to us as they pose no direct threat.”

However, the US Southern Command sent the submarine USS Helena to the Guantánamo Naval Base, also on a “routine” port visit.

Currently, it is unknown whether the Russian fleet will dock in any other country in the region, although some media suggest that it could now head towards Venezuela, one of Russia’s allies in Latin America.